Music is a mystery for people who play it, write it, listen to it, and write about it. The only thing I can really do when I try to say something about music is assume.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Nathan Gunn's Schubert

It must have been sometime in 1991. I saw a notice up about a unscheduled performance of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin performed by pianist John Wustman and a student from the University of Illinois. Some far-sighted person had the generosity to offer them a local run-through before taking the cycle on the road as part of Wustman's six-year tour performing all of Schubert's lieder with various singers.

I brought my three-year-old daughter to the concert, and we were part of an audience of just a handful of people--maybe there were between ten and twenty other people there. It was, to date, the most exciting, dramatic, and thrilling performance of Die Schöne Müllerin I have ever heard. My daughter, who I figured would go to sleep after she heard a song or two, was mesmerized through the whole song cycle.

I always wondered who that singer was, and what became of him. Now I know. Luckily he is now living, once again, just an hour's drive from my neck of the woods. I might even get the chance to hear him sing another Schubert song cycle at some point in the future.

1 comment:

Nathan Gunn sang with our symphony here for our opening set. WHAT a delight! He was singing Songs of the Wayfarer and he was truly fantastic. What an honor to have him; I suspect we were sort of a "safe" place to work on the piece, as he hadn't done it before (if I heard correctly). We sure were fortunate to get him!

I am active as a composer, a violist, a violinist, a recorder player, and as a teacher. I began my professional musical life as a flutist, and spent a lot of quality time as a baroque flutist, but both of those instruments spend their time tucked away in a drawer, while my violin, viola, and my viola d'amore are often tucked under my chin.